Cape Summer Trail Series® 2019

Lebanon Forest

2Lebanon Forest Elgin Valley20 January 2019

Runners get an exclusive morning of running through the Valley Farm orchards and the Lebanon Forestry mountain bike trails. A trail filled with glorious single track and picturesque views. A superb morning of running through a mixture of pine, fynbos and orchards as part of the Cape Summer Trail Series®.

Online Entries Closed. On the day entries available at the race venue from 05:30 - 07: 10. Late entry fee R35.00

Pre Race Information: Released in the week of the eventDirections: Click here

Short Course

Long Course

From an inspiring setting overlooking a magnificent dam below the forested slopes of Lebanon plantation, we start with a short drop over the dam wall before picking up a steady climb to through the beautiful Valley Farm orchards to the foot of Lebanon Forestry area (1.5km). A gentle zig-zag trail gets us to the course split at a main forest track (1.9km).
From the course split, we get onto a fast traverse and the base of a steep single track climb (2.5km) along an old fire break which is the start of an undulating 3km climb on mixed terrain to the start of the glorious single track (5.5km). 2.2km of winding fast, smooth single track takes you to a short and runnable uphill (7.7km) to the top of another fast single track descent for 4km to a farm dam. A fast undulating finish through a mixture of pine, Fynbos and orchard gets you back to the finish line.

Short Course

From an inspiring setting overlooking a magnificent dam below the forested slopes of Lebanon plantation, we start with a short drop over the dam wall before picking up a steady climb to through the beautiful Valley Farm orchards to the foot of Lebanon Forestry area (1.5km). A gentle zig-zag trail gets us to the course split at a main forest track (1.9km).
From the course split it’s a rampant downhill on open track to join the fun single track again (2.9km). 1.7km of fun and fast single track brings you to another beautiful farm dam (4.6km), A fast undulating finish through a mixture of pine, Fynbos and orchard gets you back to the finish line.

WILDRUNNER TRAIL RUNNING GRADING SYSTEM (WTG)

The Wildrunner Trail Grading system (WTG), was developed in 2009 and designed to help you make informed decisions on trail running events around the country. Unlike road running, trail running routes and races have many more facets to them, making them either harder or longer (in time) than you may expect.

Every race/event should give you the total distance and accumulative ascent, but using road running sense to work out your time based on these factors alone would be a mistake!

The three primary 'trail factors' affecting your overall time and effort on a trail run are as follows:
1. Terrain difficulty (easy or tricky?)
2. % single track/off-road to on-road (how much on difficult terrain?)
3. Route severity (how steep?)

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The three factors mentioned above have been expanded into an easy three part grading system. Each trail factor is listed below with the descriptions. Look out for races with a WTG and use this guide to make informed decisions.

DEFINITIONS:
'Technical' terrain = trail that is ‘busy’, that requires extensive concentration and trail running technique - for example a rocky hiking path, or a 4x4 track.
'Off-trail'= Describes sections that do not have any obvious or established route, for example a river bed, grass field or a section of beach.
'Single-track' = Describing a trail that is narrow and typically only wide enough for one runner to run on at a time and in single file. Examples of typical single track would be a hiking trail, mountain bike trail, game trail, livestock trail

All Wildrunner events (www.wildrunner.co.za) carry this grading system - look out for the grading on the event listing.

PART 1: TERRAIN DIFFICULTY

YELLOW = Easy, non-technical terrain, all on established trails and tracks
ORANGE= Moderately easy terrain, short sections of ‘technical’ terrain but largely easy running, all on established trails and tracks
GREEN = Moderate challenging terrain, with a mix of ‘technical’ and ‘non technical’ terrain, mostly on established trails and tracks but may or may not have extended sections regarded as being ‘off-trail’
BROWN = Moderately difficult terrain, more ‘technical’ terrain than ‘non-technical’ terrain, challenging but mostly on established trails and tracks although may or may not have extended sections regarded as being ‘off-trail’
RED = Difficult terrain, majority ‘technical’ terrain that is extremely demanding, may or may not have large sections on un-established trails and tracks